All-terrain vehicles (“ATVs”) often get stuck in the mud or sand during use and require an external moving force, such as towing or a winch, to become unstuck.
Often an ATV will have a winch attached to the front or back of the ATV. When the ATV becomes stuck, the winch cable is unwound and attached to an anchor, such as a tree or large rock. The winch is then activated to retract the cable, thereby pulling the ATV toward the anchor and out of the mud, sand, or other entrapping surface.
Ideally, the winch will directly face the anchor so that the winch cable will not spool improperly or bind when the winch is retracting the cable. However, anchor position and availability is a matter of luck, and often the best or only available anchor is not directly facing the winch.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide various embodiments of an ATV winch mount that allows a mounted winch to pivot towards an anchor, or pivot toward another predetermined direction, during use, thereby allowing the cable to spool properly when the cable is retracted.